Winter came early to the north.
One morning we woke up and the whole world was white. Snow fell so thick you couldn't see ten steps ahead. The soldiers called it corpse snow... because it hid bodies too well.
I hated it.
But the snow also hid our movements.
For two weeks we used my knowledge and Taehyun's battle plans to push the tribes back. Every victory was small, bloody, and hard. Every night more wounded men filled the tents. Every night Taehyun came back to our tent with new blood on his armor.
I stopped asking whose it was.
I became the person soldiers came to when they were scared. They called me Lady Phoenix now. Some even bowed when I walked past. It felt weird, but I didn't stop them.
One night the temperature dropped so low the water in cups froze.
Taehyun was late coming back from patrol.
I waited in the command tent with maps spread everywhere. Min-Jun stood at the door like always.
Hours passed.
I started pacing.
Finally the tent flap opened and Taehyun walked in... covered head to toe in ice, carrying a half-frozen soldier in his arms.
He laid the boy down gently. Seventeen, maybe eighteen. Lips blue.
"He was on watch," Taehyun said quietly. "Found him like this."
I grabbed every blanket we had and piled them on the boy. I rubbed his hands until they turned pink again.
When the boy finally opened his eyes, he looked straight at me and started crying.
"Lady Phoenix... I saw them... the tribes... they're coming... thousands... tomorrow at dawn... through the ice valley..."
Then he passed out.
Taehyun and I looked at each other.
The ice valley was a death trap. Narrow, steep walls, frozen river at the bottom. In the original novel, the emperor's army got slaughtered there because they were tricked into entering.
I grabbed Taehyun's arm.
"We don't go in," I said fast. "We make them come to us. We collapse the valley on top of them."
He stared at me. Then a slow, scary smile spread across his face.
"My clever phoenix," he whispered.
All night we planned.
We sent fake wounded soldiers running toward the valley... bait.
We filled the cliffs with archers and oil pots.
We waited.
Dawn came red.
The tribes took the bait.
They poured into the ice valley like ants... thousands of warriors screaming war cries.
Taehyun gave the signal.
Fire arrows rained down.
Oil pots exploded.
Then we broke the ice dams we had built in secret.
A wall of freezing water and rock crashed down the valley.
When the snow settled, it was quiet.
Only the wind and the bodies.
We won the biggest battle of the war in one morning.
That night the whole camp celebrated.
Soldiers drank rice wine around huge fires. Someone started singing an old victory song. More voices joined. Soon ten thousand men were singing about the Lady Phoenix who brought fire from heaven.
Taehyun found me sitting on a supply crate watching everything.
He was still in armor, face black with smoke.
He picked me up without asking and sat me on his lap right there in front of everyone.
Then he kissed me.
Not a small kiss.
A full, deep, claiming kiss.
The soldiers went crazy cheering.
When he finally let me breathe, he shouted so everyone could hear.
"This woman saved your lives today! She is my heart and my future empress!"
More cheering. Someone started throwing flower petals they had saved from summer.
I laughed and cried at the same time.
Later, in our tent, he undressed me slowly by candlelight.
Every bruise, every scar from the past weeks... he kissed them all.
"You were magnificent today," he whispered against my skin.
"We were magnificent," I corrected.
He smiled and made love to me like the world was ending.
Because maybe it was.
Because three days later everything went wrong.